by Stina
“On it.”
The two of them threw their coats off and allowed for their bodies to transform. Kesh felt his muscles grow bigger and his fingers turn to claws. Once in their complete vampire form, the two of them ran full speed toward the beasts. Kesh took the one on the right, and Vila took the one on the left. They fought the beasts with no mercy, drawing blood from all over.
“Ahhhh!” Vila’s battle cry filled the night air as her hand made its way into her opponent’s back and yanked out its spine.
It dropped instantly, dead. With one still standing, Kesh’s claws slashed ferociously at its face. Soon it was so covered in blood that the beast could not see. It began lashing out at nothing but air, missing Kesh every time. Kesh used that to his advantage and attacked every opening the beast had.
“Stop playing with it!” Vila called from off to the side. She’d gone back to grab their coats after she’d killed her Lykan and she was watching him battle. “Just kill it already.”
Kesh put his hand around the beast’s neck and held it up in the air. It was weak, and as his claws tried to remove Kesh’s hand from around its neck, it slowly turned back into a human.
“What is your name?” Kesh asked the naked man now in his clutches. He loosened his grip slightly so that his question could be answered.
“I was so hungry. So thirsty. I could smell their blood. I wanted it.”
“What is your name?” Kesh asked again.
“Willeth,” he stuttered.
“Who turned you, Willeth?”
“I don’t know his name. I don’t even know what I am.”
“You are a monster.”
“And what are you?”
Their eyes locked for a second, right before Kesh went to crack his neck. He, however, didn’t get the chance to. The sound of gunshots filled the air, and a gust of angry shouts followed them:
“Oh, my God! Dortha Jean!”
“Auntie Mable!”
“What happened? Who would do something like this? Oh, my God. Call the police! Somebody please just call the police!”
Kesh was caught so off guard that the young Lykan was able to slip through his fingers. He tried to go after him, but Vila snatched his arm and handed him his coat.
“We have to get out of sight!”
They moved quickly and were gone before anyone even knew they were there. There was an alley behind a row of houses, and they used it to head back to the main road.
“Don’t come near me. I know what you are!”
The voice came from behind two tall metal trashcans. Kesh’s eyes landed on a young woman who had been wounded badly. Her thick hair was pinned back into a ponytail, and the brown skin on her face had snow all over it. She wore only a dress, which looked like it would be very pretty had it not been for the blood smeared all over it. Her leg was twisted at a grotesque angle, and it looked as if a chunk was missing from it. She shivered as she cradled a small child in her arms. Kesh could hear only one heart beating, so he already knew the child was dead. When they didn’t stop, the girl pulled a gun out on them and aimed it their way with a shaky hand.
“I said stop!”
“We aren’t going to hurt you,” Kesh tried to say soothingly with his hands up. “We are just trying to go home.
“I know what you are!”
“Do you now?” Vila said, laughing slightly at the sight of the gun. “And what are we?”
“Werewolves! She has blood all over her face!”
Kesh and Vila looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.
“Close,” Vila said. “But not quite.”
She flashed her fangs at Risa, who in return jumped at the sight and emptied the gun’s entire clip into Vila. Kesh watched as Vila’s body jerked from the impact of each bullet, but she did not fall. Her feet stayed planted where they were and when Risa was done, she stretched her neck from side to side. Risa’s eyes bulged out of her head as she watched the bullets come back out of Vila’s body and fall to the ground. Vila’s body healed right before her, and she clutched the child’s body even tighter.
“You’re a vampire?”
“Yes,” Kesh answered her.
“Before today, I never thought monsters existed!” Risa clenched her eyes shut. “I never thought they were real.”
“What happened here?” Kesh asked her.
When she hesitated, Vila nodded and prompted her. “It’s okay.”
“My family and I, we were eating dinner, and there was a knock on the door. There was a man none of us had ever seen before. He was big, bigger than any man I have ever seen. He had hair all over his face like he didn’t care to shave it off. At first, I thought he just had the wrong house. But then I heard the screams of our neighbors. I tried to call the police, but in this neighborhood, they wouldn’t have shown up until tomorrow. And then . . . and then he changed into a beast. It slaughtered my entire family. My little sister.” She put her head down on the child’s body and sobbed. “It killed my sister!”
Vila knelt down next to the girl and put a hand softly on her shoulder. “What is your name?”
“Clarisa,” she answered. “Please just leave me alone. Please, I have nothing left. You are all monsters.”
“Yes,” Vila started in a soft tone. “We are all monsters, but we are the lesser of the two evils. Tell me something, Clarisa: were you bitten?”
“No.” Clarisa shook her head. “One of those things clawed a chunk of my leg away. I can’t feel it anymore.”
Kesh and Vila exchanged a look. She hadn’t been bitten, which meant she wouldn’t turn into a werewolf. Kesh knew what Vila was thinking but, before he could oppose, Vila’s attention was already back on Clarisa.
“How old are you?”
“I just turned twenty-one at the beginning of December.”
“If we leave you here like this, you will die. Do you know that?”
The girl slowly nodded.
“Well, Clarisa, how would you like to be twenty-one for eternity?”
“But what about Clara?” Clarisa kissed the forehead of her dead sister.
“Clara is already dead. Everyone is dead, but we can give you the opportunity to live.”
Clarisa looked down once more at her sister. Her lips had already begun to turn blue. She was gone. Clarisa knew that she would soon meet the same fate if she didn’t give in to the vampire in front of her.
She parted her trembling lips. “What is your name?”
“Vila.”
“Will you take care of me, Vila?”
“Yes.” Vila nodded. “Sefu take care of each other. Forever.”
Kesh snapped back to reality and looked to Risa walking beside him. He never knew why Vila had taken a quick liking to Risa, but he thought it had something to do with the fact that she shot her. Ever since, she had done nothing but proven her loyalty to the Sefu, which was why he could not blame her for siding with Tiev. To her, it must have seemed like Kesh was the bad guy in the problem and Tiev was the only one trying to fix it.
“Everything must look so different to you,” Risa said finally.
“What has happened since I have been gone?”
“A lot. The entire clan is divided.”
“I would be telling lies if I said that I didn’t notice that. When I walked in, my own clan reminded me of the cliques of college students on the campus. Why have they divided like this?”
“They’ve forgotten their common interests and only care about their own.”
“Why have they remained here?” Kesh asked, but it was Risa’s turn to ignore his question.
“Tiev said that we are vampires; therefore, we should live as such. He said we were growing too accustomed to living like humans.”
“The purpose is to blend in as much as possible. Especially with everything that has taken place.”
“Not according to Tiev. He said that was even more of a reason the Sefu need to spread in numbers.”
“Spread in numbers?”
“Yes. Tiev has been making rogue vampires left and right. The only thing is, they are too reckless to commit to the ways of a clan. They do not want to follow the rules of the vampire; they just want the power.”
“What happens to them when they do not want to be a part of the Sefu?”
“Tiev disposes of them.”
“So, all in all, it is a waste of time,” Kesh said and shook his head. He finally decided to address her question. “I came back because great danger is headed our way. Tiev is not a fit leader for the Sefu. Nor is he the type of general who would lead us well into battle.”
“What?”
“Hunters, Risa. Hunters will infiltrate the Sefu clan at sunrise.”
“How do you know this?”
“I was at the Malum estate earlier today.”
“What!”
“It is not what you think.” He went on to explain what all had happened in the past year. He didn’t stop until it was all out and she was looking at him with a bewildered expression.
“Talum has stepped down as king?”
“Yes.”
“And the human Adirah brought to our home last year has now become a hunter?”
“Yes.”
“And the vampire she had relations with told you they were going to attack us at sunrise?”
“Pretty much.”
“Okay, we’re going to touch on the whole ‘golden child’ and ‘Ancient vampire’ things later. First things first: why haven’t you warned the Sefu about the hunters?”
“They do not trust me anymore. This vote will allow me to address them as a whole.”
“But will it be enough?” Risa studied the side of Kesh’s handsome face to find an answer that did not come from his lips. She sighed. “You have always had the best poker face, Kesh. What about Tiev?”
Kesh had also told Risa about Tiev’s betrayal. Listening to his words felt like a gut blow. Still, she couldn’t say that she was surprised. He wasn’t the same vampire she’d once known. She had never seen him so thirsty for power; and to know that he’d been in cahoots with the Malum the entire time, she knew there were no lengths to which he would not go.
“Even though now you say that the Malum are on our side, he will never stop attacking you. For all we know he will go to the Lykans next.”
“Do you love him?”
“I thought I did.” Risa looked down at the ground and felt her head shake from side to side. “But it seems that the vampire I loved never existed. I have a strong following here. He used me to get the clan on his side. He has to be stopped.”
“Then help me.”
It was at that moment another vampire woman appeared in front of them. She moved fast, and when Kesh saw who it was, he smiled. “Cera.”
“Sire. I mean, King. I mean . . . Kesh?”
“You can call me whatever you like, my child.”
Cera was one of the youngest vampires in the Sefu at only eighty years old. It had taken her a while to get used to life as a vampire, but she was one whom Kesh had always kept an eye on. She was only eighteen when she was turned, so her physique was that of a young girl. Kesh was the one who turned her as she lay dying of cancer. He gave her life when the world around her was draining it out of her. He was the one who trained her and took her under his wing like she was a true daughter. It wasn’t until Adirah came along that he stopped spending as much time with her.
“We are ready for you. In the basement.”
“Of course,” Kesh said and smiled. “You have grown stronger. I’m proud.”
Cera nodded at Kesh and turned her back to him so that she could head back the way that she came. Unseen to Kesh, a broad smile spread across her face as she departed. Risa, however, noticed it and turned to face Kesh.
“You asked why the Sefu have remained, although divided in their own home?”
“Yes.”
“Because of you.”
“Me?”
“Despite the fact that you left without a good-bye, and despite their anger with you, to them, you are the only one who has ever offered any of our lives meaning.”
“‘Our’?”
“Yes.” Risa nodded. “Including mine. We have allowed Tiev to step in from the shadows, but deep down we have all hoped that you would return. There is no other leader for the Sefu. They just need you to remind them.”
Chapter 20
The day after the first vampire battle Ramel and Lina had fought together, he took her back to her home and asked her to come with him. He was sure that she was going to go running, but she didn’t. She dived in even deeper. She didn’t fully understand what she was getting herself into, but she said yes. She packed everything that she could and hit the road with Ramel without a second thought.
The hunter headquarters was in Georgia at an undisclosed location. The facility looked to be something out of a movie.
“This place looks like a military base,” Lina said as they drove up to the tall gate.
“It’s something like it. The government funds us.”
“What? They know about these things?”
Ramel was shocked that she was so taken aback. He rolled his window down and showed the man at the window his badge.
“Commander, nice to have you back. Who is this you have with you?” The man, who looked to be in his early thirties, eyed Lina with his dark brown eyes. Lina read his suspicion but kept quiet.
“This is Lina; she is new on the job. Spread the word. I expect everyone to make her feel welcome and at home.”
“Yes, sir.” With that, the gate opened, and they drove through.
Ramel turned back to Lina. “Of course they know about the creatures of the underworld.”
“Then why haven’t they said anything?”
“Can you imagine the state of panic if everyone knew there were vampires, werewolves, and witches roaming the world?”
“Witches?”
“Yes. And if everyone knew about these things there would be so much chaos that no money would be made. And we all know what that means, so the Legion for Darkness division was created.”
“Legion for Darkness?”
“Hunters. Why do you think the president crafted such a heavy military budget?”
Lina was quiet as they drove around the base. Finally, they stopped and parked outside a building that was bigger than the rest.
“This is where I live,” he told her. “Only people on my team are permitted access to this building. The other hunters either live on base or, at their own risks, in their own homes.”
“Who is on your team?”
“Come see.”
Ramel took the keys out of the ignition and grinned at her before he got out of the vehicle. He grabbed her bags from the back and led her to the steel door of the building.
“It smells like—”
“Garlic.”
“Yes.” Lina turned her nose up. “Lots of garlic.”
“Well, get used to it. Everything in this place is doused in it.”
“Great,” Lina said under her breath when Ramel opened the door. “Just great.”
“The basement is where we train.” Ramel pointed to a hallway that led to an elevator. “We have all types of stuff down there. You can get to it through that elevator, or the ones closer to the west wing. This floor is more of a—”
“Rec hall.”
“How did you know?”
“I don’t knowww.” She shrugged. “The arcade games and card table might have given it away. Or maybe the big yellow plush chairs with the bookshelves next to them. Orrrr, it could have been the glass windows around the pool.”
“Touché.” Ramel laughed again. “Let’s go upstairs. I’ll show you where you will be staying. If you are staying, that is.”
Lina heard the hint of a question in his voice, but she wasn’t in the state to answer him. She didn’t know what she was going to do. A year ago if she would have tried to think that far out, she would have only been able to picture herse
lf in a classroom. Now there she was in the middle of a specially designated military base with the leader of vampire hunters.
She followed closely behind Ramel and took notice that the smell of garlic wasn’t as bad inside as it was outside. She guessed that was because if anything was ever able to make it inside, they were all trained to handle the problem. The upstairs was shaped in a square and, no matter where you were in the hallway, you could look down at the rec room.
“This place reminds me of a hotel I stayed in once.”
“Well, it’s very different from a hotel, trust me.” They reached the room that he was going to make hers. “Here we are. Now—”
“Commander! You weren’t going to tell us you were back?”
“Yeah, we had to hear from the gate that you arrived.”
“This must be the newbie. Looks kind of small, don’t you think?”
Lina and Ramel turned to face the three newcomers. They all looked to be fit and in shape, even the woman. To Lina’s far right, one man was tall and had muscles on top of muscles. His hair was cut into a faded flattop, and on his roasted caramel–colored face there was a thick scar on his left cheek. He had a gap between his front teeth, and his eyes matched his complexion.
The woman, in the middle, was of average height and had very light brown skin and curly hair. Her eyes were the color of sand, and her teeth were white and straight. Her pretty face had been hardened, and Lina wondered if she knew how to smile.
The last man, on Lina’s left, wasn’t tall but he wasn’t short, either. He stood at about five foot seven and wore his hair in four neat braids.
“Meet my team,” Ramel said with a wide smile. “From the left, this is Clem, Mims, and Tiger. Team, this is Lina. She’s going to be joining us for a while.”
“Since when have you brought back the women you bag?” Mims asked.
Lina cut her eyes at the girl. She had some nerve. She was also the one who had made the comment about Lina’s size.
“The only thing we bagged were the ashes of the vampires we killed together,” Lina snapped. “The ones you think I’m too small to handle.”
“Oooh, looks like Mims has herself a challenger.”
Tiger and Clem slapped hands as they laughed at the scene taking place in front of them, but they stopped once they saw Ramel’s face.